Chapter 16 #2
A hiss stopped Will from taking another step toward the dais.
Something was wrong here. Elodie, despite her provocative gown and war paint, sat like a doll amid the clouds of her skirts.
She endured this man, who spoke as though they were family, looked at her as though she were meat, and struck her as though she belonged to him.
“Uncle…” The word slipped from her lips, and Will saw her regret it immediately.
“Perhaps Eric is the better choice if something so small makes you weep. He fights for what he wants! I see his hunger and ambition every day!” The Red Hand seized Elodie by the throat and forced her closer, making her brace herself against his vast belly while he breathed into her face.
“Your father and I gave you so much. You have spent your mourning year playing princess. Shameful. You are weak.” His breath grew shorter and his words less distinct as his lungs began to gurgle.
“I will kill you,” Elodie hissed so quietly that Will could barely hear. “I promised you then, and I will keep my word. But I will not merely destroy you. I will destroy everything you stand for.”
Will went pale. How could Elodie attend his ball as a guest, lie half across this man, his hand around her throat, and still speak to him that way?
Will respected her for it, because everyone within earshot could see that her body was trembling with disgust and that the Red Hand savored every inch of the contact.
“Good,” the Red Hand rumbled at last, forcing Elodie a little closer. “You will fail. You will become one of my little vampires—either while trying to gather enough power, like your father, or after I defeat and subdue you myself.”
“I would rather die,” Elodie spat.
“Or that.” He laughed, his entire body vibrating. “You vultures will have to tear my office from my still-warm hands.”
“I would say we could simply wait for you to die at any moment, but I refuse to give you that satisfaction. No, I will defeat you.” Elodie curled her lip. “You stink.”
The Red Hand grunted, but released her. Then his gaze fell on Will. “And what do we have here? Come closer, boy.”
Will glanced at Elodie. She had slipped beyond the man’s reach, and despite the paint covering her face, Will knew she had gone pale. But she nodded.
Carefully, he approached, passing the vampires who had turned once more into forgotten dolls. He stopped beside the man’s feet, hidden beneath the folds of his vast garment, and looked down at him uncertainly.
“Kneel.”
Will lowered himself to the place where Elodie had been sitting only moments before.
“Beautiful. Almost like a woman.” The Red Hand examined him as though inspecting meat for purchase.
With Elodie, he had shown some restraint, preserving the faintest trace of etiquette.
Now his broad mouth lifted into a greasy smile that made Will’s hair stand on end. “What is your name, pretty thing?”
“William Frank, Your Highness.” He lowered his head as expected.
“Give me your hand, William Frank.”
“No.” Elodie had regained her composure and fixed her uncle with a sharp look. “You will not have his blood.”
The Red Hand laughed and waved her objection away. “Are you worried he is not strong enough? That his will would bend to my command?”
“Your Highness, no one can resist you.”
The compliment appeared to please him. He sank back against the cushions of the strange platform, which Will was slowly beginning to understand was a throne. “I do not yet see what you intend to do with him. I like that.”
Will’s knees ached, and he lowered his gaze, unable to continue looking into the man’s swollen face. At this distance, he could also smell the rot and inflamed flesh devouring his body.
“When you are finished with him, give him to me. I would make him my slave before the night is over.”
“I am not an object to be traded,” Will managed, his hands curling into fists against his pants.
“Hmm…” The Red Hand practically purred. “He looks so obedient. But there is a brat in him. My favorite kind. Do you look this angry—” He paused, wheezing for breath. “—when you have a cock in your mouth?”
Will froze.
Elodie sighed and rose. “Will, let us go. The Red Hand needs his rest before all this excitement makes his heart leap from his chest. Oh, I forgot—he does not have one.”
The Red Hand laughed deeply. “It was good of you to dispose of your father. Bold.”
Will scrambled to his feet and bowed hastily.
He could not escape the dais and the vampires fast enough, and he had to stop himself from shaking off his disgust like a wet dog.
His head roared, overwhelmed by all the information, veiled insults, and insinuations he was trying to piece together.
The picture he held of Elodie gained new depth—black and unfathomably deep.
“Are we going to talk about that?” he asked as soon as they were beyond the Red Hand’s hearing. Even then, he cast one uneasy glance over his shoulder, and his entire body shuddered.
Elodie’s mask threatened to crack. “About what? What am I supposed to explain to a tourist?”
“I don’t know… the vampires?” Will backpedaled.
Elodie sighed and waved a servant over. Dark-red liquid swayed in tall crystal glasses across the tray.
Elodie took the only one containing something clear.
“Vampires are like humans with weak minds. If a mage drinks their blood, they obey. Keeping vampires as slaves is forbidden, but no one cares about the law when you are powerful enough.”
Will was about to ask his next question when Elodie raised a hand. “Do not expect me to explain my family history next. And be careful before you celebrate earning the Red Hand’s favor. He follows through on his threats.” Without blinking, she threw back the liquor.
“You played your part masterfully,” Will said.
In the ballroom’s dim light, she looked beautiful, like a creature from another world trapped inside a display case too small to contain her.
But he could also see her edges fraying, her composure slowly slipping no matter how tightly she gripped the reins.
“Thank you?”
“No one—not even Mr. Arcos—makes you as angry as that man. And yet everyone is watching you with respect and fear now.” Indeed, the whispered chorus around them had changed; there was reverence in it now.
Elodie’s shoulders relaxed, and her posture grew lighter, as though she had taken her first proper breath since speaking to the Red Hand.
“Thank you. But do not be fooled, thinking you understand what is happening here.”
“Never.”